The Far East is an English term (with equivalents in various other languages of Europe and Asia, Chinese 遠東 yuǎn dōng literally translating to "far east") mostly describing East Asia (including the Russian Far East) and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.
The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century, denoting East Asia as the "farthest" of the three "easts", beyond the Near East and the Middle East. For the same reason, Chinese people in the 19th and early 20th centuries called Western countries "Tàixī (泰西)"—i.e. anything further west than the Arab world. The term is less commonly used than in the past as it allegedly connotes the "orientalism" of the 19th century more explicitly than East Asia. Since the 1960s, terms like East Asia and the Orient have become increasingly common. East Asia remains the most common media term for the region today.
Read more about Far East: Popularisation, Cultural As Well As Geographic Meaning, Territories and Regions Conventionally Included Under The Term Far East
Famous quotes containing the word east:
“The East knew and to the present day knows only that One is Free; the Greek and the Roman world, that some are free; the German World knows that All are free. The first political form therefore which we observe in History, is Despotism, the second Democracy and Aristocracy, the third, Monarchy.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)